News out of Sanford, North Carolina

McCrory’s Lee County protest was about one voter

Governor Pat McCrory’s protest of alleged voting irregularities in Lee County hinged on a single voter who was alleged to be a current felon, the Rant has learned.

McCrory’s campaign, alleging widespread irregularities such as voting by felons and dead people, announced last week that it was filing the protests in 52 of the state’s 100 counties. The Lee County Board of Elections rejected the complaint Friday after saying it could find no probable cause (subscription required) that the voter in question was currently serving any type of felony sentence or parole.

McCrory, who trails Democrat Roy Cooper statewide by around 7,000 votes, won Lee County by about 1,600 votes. Despite McCrory’s refusal to concede and the state’s ongoing efforts to finalize the vote count, Cooper has declared victory and on Monday announced the makeup of his transition team.

The initial complaint was filed on Election Day by Lee GOP chairman Charles Staley, who is a former probation and parole officer.

“Upon review if the North Carolina Department of Corrections active prisoner and parole database and ballots cast for candidates for this elections, it appears that 1 ballot was cast by persons adjudged guilty of a felony against the State or the United States,” Staley’s complaint reads. “That class of persons not being allowed to vote in this State as prescribed by law, it appears that none of these ballots are valid under State law.”

The Rant has redacted the alleged felon’s name and address, but readers can view the complaint here. Although the voter in question’s name does appear on the state Department of Corrections website as having been convicted of felonies in the 1980s and 90s and again in 2013, it was unclear if that is the same person named in the complaint, and if so, whether that person had completed the terms of their parole. North Carolinians who complete their sentences and the terms of their parole can have their voting rights restored.

The reporting is not biased, the facts are what they are. McCrory is wasting time and resources of our state to attempt to undermine a legitimate election. It is unprecedented by any NC Governor, Democrat or Republican. His end game is not even to prove voter fraud, but to interrupt civil proceedings in an attempt to take a position that he lost.